I've just bought a late 1800s terrace house that has had a great renovation.

The problem I've come across is that the carpet seems to be glued to the floorboards. I want to get below the floorboards to lay ethernet cables around the house. I was hoping to pull the carpet up in the corners and lift a few boards in each room to run the cables.

What I don't want to do is damage the carpet. It's brand new carpet throughout the house.

Is there a reasonable way to lift the carpet without damage?

Maybe steam? A solvent of some sort (that doesn't destroy the carpet)?

Steam does loosen some glues. It is hard to say exactly what will help as different glues react differently. I would try steam first and see what happens. If you know exactly what glue was used try to contact the manufacturer as they should know the best way to remove the glue.
– deathismyfriendJun 15 '14 at 21:40

1 Answer
1

Turns out the carpet was glued to the gripper rods in the corners and every 30 cm or so along the rod there was another spot of glue. No glue to the floorboards.

Pouring acetone along the edge enabled me to lift the carpet fairly easily. It did cause some slight damage to the glue keeping the backing to the carpet and where the problem glue didn't quite dissolve well enough I got a few pulls but thankfully not too many.